Can I not deal with you as the potter does?

Jeremiah 18 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, ² “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” ³ Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. ⁴ But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.

⁵ Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, ⁶ “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. ⁷ At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it; ⁸ if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. ⁹ Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it; ¹⁰ if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it. ¹¹ So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds.”’ ¹² But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’

¹³ “Therefore thus says the Lord, ‘Ask now among the nations,
Who ever heard the like of this? The virgin of Israel Has done a most appalling thing.
¹⁴ ‘Does the snow of Lebanon forsake the rock of the open country?
Or is the cold flowing water from a foreign land ever snatched away?
¹⁵ ‘For My people have forgotten Me, They burn incense to worthless gods
And they have stumbled from their ways, From the ancient paths,
To walk in bypaths, Not on a highway,
¹⁶ To make their land a desolation, An object of perpetual hissing;
Everyone who passes by it will be astonished And shake his head.
¹⁷ ‘Like an east wind I will scatter them Before the enemy;
I will show them My back and not My face In the day of their calamity.’”

In today’s text God speaks to and through Jeremiah saying:    “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.”   My son tells a story of a time when he was doing an art show/exhibition at school. He was working on a pottery wheel. People would stop and watch as he worked the clay and created vessels, as it pleased him. At one point he says he was fashioning a very large impressive piece and all at once he simply crushed it, back into a ball of clay. When asked why, it was simply because he could.

I believe the truth, the fact that as creator, as the one who designs everyone and everything, God has every right to do what He wills, is the reason why many who are atheist or agnostic, many who reject God, believe as they do. Because if we acknowledge that He is God, then we must acknowledge that He has the sovereign right to do what He wants. The difference though between God’s hand on our lives and the potter, is that God does not simply do things to us because He can. He does not manipulate and change us and things in our lives simply because He can. He does it because He has a plan. Jeremiah 1:5 says: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you.”      Jeremiah 29:11-13 says:   “For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

Unlike the lifeless lump of clay in the hand of the potter, God has given man a free will. He gives each individual a choice of whether they will submit to His hand and His plan, allowing Him to change and design us according to His will, or to resist and reject God’s hand and His plan. While it may be uncomfortable at times, when pressure is placed on us to form us, just as the potter, as he works the clay, continues to wet his hands and the clay to keep it soft and palpable, God will continue to gently and carefully form us. If we reject God’s hand, we begin to become hardened. Like the clay, our lives become dry. The vessels we create of our own lives are frail, easily broken under pressure. We can never be all that God intends if we do it without Him.

In the text, God says:    I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it;  if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it.  Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it; if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it. So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds.”’ But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’       God’s plan, His desire is for our good. He continually offers an opportunity to those who resist and reject Him to turn back, to come again under His hand. Ironically it is often those who reject and resist God, those who question Him, who also want to blame Him when things don’t go well. They move away from God and yet they blame Him when life becomes dry and hard. They question how and why a loving God could allow difficulties, when in truth, often what they face are the consequences of living apart from God.

There is one major difference between the clay on the potter’s wheel and the lives of people. If clay has been too long away from the hand of the potter, it reaches a point when it is no longer of any value it can no longer be restored or softened. When the clay reaches that point it is simply discarded, thrown out. With God, people never reach that point. God’s will and His plan is that He is:   patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)    Even up to the point of death, God continues to draw people to redemption and restoration. Even to the thief on the cross, Jesus said:   "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise." (Luke 23:43)     Romans 8:28-29 says: And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren      God does not cause all the evil and difficult things in our lives, many of them are the result of our rejecting and resisting His hand. If we will though, turn back and come under His hand, He will touch us and soften us. He will redeem and restore us. He will cause all the things that have happened in our lives to work for our good, to make us stronger, to shape us and mould us exactly to His design. We will become a vessel created for His purposes.

We can’t choose whether or not God is sovereign, whether He is in control. We can though choose when we will come under His loving hand of grace allowing Him to form us as He sees fit, becoming a glorious vessel for His purpose. We can choose now.

Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ; precious Holy Spirit, thank You for Your loving hand on my life. Thank You that even though at times it may feel uncomfortable as the pressures of life are used to form me, You have a plan for my good. You are forming me, conforming me to the image of Christ. Thank You that You love with an everlasting love, a love that began before You formed me in the womb and will last beyond the day of my last breath here on earth. I choose to come under Your hand of grace, through the cross of Christ. May I be the vessel You desire.  Amen